A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empire [Hardcover]

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008

A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empireexplores the cultural position of animals in the period from 1800 to 1920. This was a time of extraordinary social, political and economic change as the Western world rapidly industrialized and modernized. The Enlightenment had attempted to define the human self; the Age of Empire pulled animals and humans further apart.

A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empirepresents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary symbolism, hunting, domestication, sports and entertainment, science, philosophy, and art.

Introduction: Animals and Human Empire, Kathleen Kete, Trinity College, Hartford * 1. The Moment of Greyfriars Bobby: The Changing Cultural Position of Animals in Europe, Hilda Kean, Ruskin College, Oxford * 2. Hunting Empires in Britain and the United States, Daniel Herman, Central Washington University * 3. Domestication of Empire: Human-Animal Relations at the Intersection of Civilization and Acclimatization in the Nineteenth Century, Dorothee Brantz, Department of History, SUNY Buffalo * 4. How the Caged Bird Sings: Entertainment and the Exhibition of Animals, Nigel Rothfels, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee * 5. From Birds of Paradise to Drosophila: The Changing Roles of Scientific Specimens in Europe and America to 1920, Narisara Murray, Independent Scholar, Cambodia * 6. Philosophy and Animals in the Age of Empire, Mark Rowlands, Department of Philosophy, University of Hertfordshire * 7. Narrative Dominion or The Animals Write Back? Animal Genres in Literature and the Arts, Teresa Mangum, Department of English, University of Iowa * Notes * Bibliography * Index